New Omnibus Purchases

It's well past time to catch-up on this blog with What I've been buying, reading and watching.

First up are two Marvel Omnibus volumes the second of which is very close to the perfect book for me.

The Savage Sword of Conan Omnibus Vol 1 is a companion to Conan the Barbarian Omnibus I bought early on this year. It's another big book, full of stories that I've never read and a real interesting purchase for me.

John Buscema's art also looks fantastic in black and white.

By the way, I've read about half of the CtB omni. It's good but a little bit "samey" when reading one issue right after another and so after 13-14 issues I felt I needed a little break before resuming.

The second omnibus is Amazing Spider-man volume 4. This is just perfect.

The issues reprinted include my first ever Spider-man purchased story and so many other Bronze-Age classics which captured my imagination and made me a Spidey fan for life.

So even though I've all the originals of these issues (except for #129 1st Punisher) I just felt I had to get this and I absolutely love going through it. I guess it will help keep my originals in better condition.

Complete Two-In-One (plus another Thor! and Nemo!)

I've now completed by collection of Marvel Two-In-One with this purchase of issue 13. As you can see from the cover scan it's not the VFN as advertised but, to be fair, the seller agreed and fully refunded me when I pointed this out. It'll do but I'd have rather have had that VFN copy.

So, just as promised back in Jan, I've now completed 1-75 of 2-in-1 which was my aim.

I also picked-up Thor #256 from a different seller as it was one of the issues missing from the lot I purchased recently. A nice copy at 99p.

And finally I decided to purchase "River of Ghosts" which is the last part of the Nemo trilogy. I didn't like only having 2/3 of the story on the shelf and this was going cheap. Oh, the completist in me can cause me trouble! 

Added to My Collection: Bronze-Age Thor!

I still occasionally check ebay for bargains and I recently picked-up 11 issues of Thor in two separate lots from the same seller for the total of £3.87.

I got issues 255-267 but #256 and #262 were missing. All in Fine condition too. Still these issues comprise the next Masterworks so I've saved myself some money by buying the originals. I will look out for those two missing issues though.

These issues feature the change in art from John Buscema to Walt Simonson. I haven't got Simonson's later run where he takes over the writing too but a quick glace through these issues I can tell he adopted a similar style to JB for his initial issues.

A nice bargain and I've now achieved my aim to get all the JB issues. Very soon I'll get Vol 3 of the Epic collection which will Mean I've probably got enough to be going on with.

More Thor Masterworks

It's not actually been that long since I last bought two volumes of Thor Masterworks but here I am buying two more, And these will be my last ones.

Vol 9 fits the gap between the Thor Epic collection vol 4 which I've had since March 15 and, what was up to then, the earliest Thor Masterwork collection I had which was volume 10.

Volume 15 is the latest volume to be published and it reprints the first US edition Thor comic I ever bought (not that I bought many). That was issue 253 and my copy is getting a bit shabby now. Great Kirby cover on this one!

I've pre-ordered volume 2 of the Thor Epic collection series and so when that arrives I will have the majority of the Silver and Bronze Age runs.

Masterworks Bonaza

For some reason I've had a bit of a splurge and bought 3 new masterworks volumes.

More John Buscema Thor and Gene Colan Daredeveil. Nice.

Marvel Masterworks Thor Vol 12

I wan't this but wasn't going to pay £32.50 or more just yet for it as there are were other things (like Christmas) I needed to save my cash for.

But when it came down to £17.45 in the new year that was an opportunity too good to miss! I've no idea what these issues are like as I've never read them but a collection full of John Buscema artwork...I'll take that!

Captain America Masterworks Vol 4

This hard back edition of Marvel Masterworks is vol 93 in the masterworks line but also Vol 4 reprinting Cap's adventures. Vol 3 will be out in paperback in approx a year but this volume and subsequent ones are many years away from the softcover treatment. Although I would have liked to get the official vol 4 I haven't spotted it available in this country and anyway £25 for a masterworks volume is about standard.

The stories in this look great. I recognise some of the artwork from old British reprints but it will be a treat to read these in colour and in their entirety.

More Masterworks

 Two Masterworks vols have arrived in the post recently.

Avengers Volume 5 completes my Avengers run! Yay! This was one of the criteria I gave myself before I start (re) reading my Marvel collection in order from the very start. In fact it was the main one. But with all the stuff I've got lined-up to read I and the chance to still acquire the odd Daredevil, Cap or X-Men Masterworks I think I am going to start at the beginning of 2015.

Now there's advance planning!

I also got this regular version of Iron Man vol 6. Forbidden Planet managed to send it in the end. This is the version that I really wanted not the limited edition I got in a panic 2 months ago.

Anyway, that limited edition will now go on ebay.

It's not Turkey for Xmas it's duck...Howard the Duck

 Only getting time to read an issue of HTD per day during the Christmas period. Too many other distractions (i.e. LEGO building) but I'm continuing to enjoy the title.

Great cover and art by John Buscema for issue 3 but Gene Colan comes on board with issue 4 and he's a good fit to the title too. Still wish Brunner had done more though.

 

The general theme is Howard travels around with his companion (girlfriend??) Bev meeting various crazy people and getting into ridiculous situations. I'm happy with stories of that nature and it's got the same light-hearted tone as my own comic (of twhich the next issue will be finished very, very soon)

New Purchases...Thor and Iron Man

Two new collections arrived in the post yesterday.

Iron Man Vol 9 by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca brings me up-to-date with these collections. I've about 4 to read now. :-)

The big purchase at £29.25 is Thor Masterworks vol 11 by Gerry Conway and John Buscema. This reprints issues 195-205 and will do for me regarding Thor reprints. As mentioned in this previous post, I wanted to get some reprints of the Thor issues I read when I first started buying and reading comics myself and those British reprints came from these issues.

This looks a nice collection and I'm excited at the prospect of reading these. I did notice from a quick read of the introduction that Gerry Conway was only 19 when he wrote these issues! Amazing!

Thor Masterworks

Wow. This is a bit of a first for me. A Thor Masterworks! Volume 10 to be exact which reprints issues 184 - 194. Most by Stan Lee and two by Gerry Conway and all illustrated by John Buscema.

These particular issues reprint the Thor stories which were included in Super Spider-man and the Super Heroes # 190 which was the first comic I ever bought and which reprinted various strips. The Thor strip was not an immediate favourite but I did grow to like it escpecially Big John's pencilling. I've long desired to have at least full colour reprints of the original US Marvel comics SSMATSH contained but trying to identify which issues they come from was a challenge! A nice one though. Thanks goodness for the Grand Comics Database which makes things much easier these days.!

This is the cover to the comic cover dated Sept 29 1976. Purchased a WH Smiths by me aged 9.

So far I have identified and purchased

Amazing Spider-man 140
Marvel Team-Up 2
Thor 191

I need

Iron Man 19
Invaders 1